Thursday, July 28, 2011

Laos -- Country Music from Thailand

A radio station is going to be beaming country music into Laos from Thailand in order to boost business and adverting, according to an article in the Thai newspaper/web site The Nation.

R Siam, RS's country-music subsidiary, will use Sabaidee TV to penetrate Laos to boost advertisers' confidence to spend more money on its satellite channel as well as to seek business partners to provide music-download services. "Laos has high potential for the Thai country-music business because its people understand Thai culture and language, while most of them are able to access both free and satellite television services from Thailand," said Soopachai Nillawan, managing director of R Siam. A survey by the company found that Sabaidee TV was the most popular satellite channel in Laos.[...] Soopachai said the overall country-music market in Thailand was worth about Bt1.5 billion annually, of which R Siam accounted for 45 per cent.

I don't know anything about the country music scene in Thailand, but I've written on this blog about the general wild west scene in Thailand, including at least one wild west theme park. Erik Cohen, an emeritus professor of anthropology (and expert on tourism studies) at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who lives in Thailand has included a lengthy -- and fascinating -- description and analysis of "Thai Cowboys" in his book Explorations in Thai Tourism, published in 2008 by Emerald, Bingley

Welcome to the Imaginary Wild West

For several years I've been exploring the imaginary wild west in contemporary Europe -- observing and experiencing the many ways that Europeans embrace the mythology of the American Frontier to enhance, imbue or create their own identities. (Or, indeed, just have fun.) On this blog I will post pictures, stories and links relating to this multi-faceted subculture, from European country music to rodeos, theme parks, round-ups and saloons....

About Me

I'm an American writer, photographer, and public speaker long based in Europe. I've chronicled Jewish cultural developments and other contemporary European Jewish issues for more than 20 years and currently coordinate the web site www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu. My latest books are "National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe," published in 2007, and "Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere)," published in 2008.
I also am working on "Sturm, Twang and Sauerkraut Cowboys: Imaginary Wild Wests in Contemporary Europe," an exploration of the American West in the European imagination for which I won a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEH summer stipend grant. In 2015 I was the Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, SC.